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Sarah Sheldon
VP, Head of Tax Legal at Lincoln Financial Group
Professional Background
Sarah Sheldon is a highly skilled attorney with extensive experience in both procedural and corporate tax law, as well as international tax matters. Having served in various high-profile roles in the private and public sectors, she boasts a comprehensive skill set that encompasses SALT (State and Local Tax) controversy and planning, domestic and international tax planning, VAT, treaty analysis, and M&A related issues. Sarah currently serves as the Vice President and Head of Tax Legal at Lincoln Financial Group, where she leads a team responsible for navigating the complex landscape of tax legislation and litigation. Her previous roles include serving as Assistant Vice President and Tax Counsel at MetLife and holding esteemed positions as Senior Tax Counsel and International Tax Counsel, which equipped her with a rich professional background and an understanding of the intricacies of tax law on both a national and international scale.
Education and Achievements
Sarah's academic accomplishments speak volumes about her dedication and commitment to excellence in the field of tax law. She graduated in the top 10 percent of her class while pursuing an LL.M. in Taxation at the University of San Diego School of Law. She received her Juris Doctor degree from California Western School of Law, also graduating in the top 10 percent of her cohort. Prior to her legal studies, Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing from Miami University. This strong educational foundation has played a crucial role in shaping her successful career in tax law, providing her with both the legal expertise and business acumen needed to advise organizations on a myriad of tax-related issues. Her rigorous academic training prepares her to tackle challenges effectively and provide insightful legal analysis to her clients.
Key Competencies and Expertise
In her current role, Sarah focuses on a variety of critical tax issues, including:
- SALT (State and Local Tax) controversy and planning, helping clients navigate disputes with state and local revenue agencies.
- Domestic and International tax planning, ensuring compliance with U.S. tax laws while optimizing international tax strategies.
- Value-Added Tax (VAT) advising clients on compliance and planning strategies.
- Permanent Establishment (PE) evaluations, determining tax responsibilities for foreign entities operating in the U.S.
- Treaty analysis to assess the implications of international tax treaties on corporate transactions.
- Documenting domestic tax legal positions and preparing for potential audits, thereby safeguarding clients' interests.
- Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), providing legal insight on tax implications during corporate transactions.
- Transfer Pricing (including Country by Country Reporting), helping clients comply with regulations regarding inter-company pricing of goods and services.
- Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), assisting organizations in maintaining compliance with complex international regulations.
- Collaborating with government relations to influence tax policy and advocate for financial strategies that benefit clients.
Notable Achievements
Sarah’s exceptional career trajectory has led her to hold numerous prestigious positions and gain wide recognition for her contributions to tax law. Admitted to practice law in the State of California and before the U.S. Tax Court, she is also recognized as in-house counsel in the State of New York. Her strong background at the Internal Revenue Service, where she held the role of Chief Counsel Attorney, has provided her a unique perspective on tax policy and regulations from a government standpoint. This experience informs her legal strategies and enhances her ability to advise clients accurately on compliance and litigation matters.
Sarah's commitment to her profession and her clients is evident in her work and her leadership roles throughout her career. Whether she is advising large multinational corporations or smaller businesses, her goal remains to deliver personalized and results-driven legal counsel that empowers clients to navigate the complexities of tax law with confidence. Her dedication to excellence combined with her impressive academic and professional credentials positions her as a trusted leader in the tax legal community and a valuable asset to any organization.
Achievements
Sarah Sheldon stands out as a dynamic legal expert in the domain of tax law, bringing both breadth and depth of knowledge to her practice. Her professional contributions not only enhance her organizations but also leave a lasting impact on tax policy discussions and legislative developments.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.